Enrollment Projections Prompt Building Plans at Maui Waena

The state Department of Education is proposing the construction of a new two-story, eight-classroom building at Maui Waena Intermediate School.

The project is designed to meet the need of the largest middle school on the island, and address an anticipated increase in enrollment.

The school’s enrollment was 1,084 students in 2011-2012, which already surpasses the designed enrollment capacity of 1,008 students.

According to a Draft Environmental Assessment, “existing facilities are inadequate” to meet the current needs of the school, and have the potential to result in overcrowded classrooms and limited class offerings.

Education officials anticipate a “significant increase” in future enrollment because of ongoing construction of subdivisions in the surrounding Maui Lani development in Central Maui.

In addition to more than 20,000 square feet of classroom space, the project also calls for infrastructure improvements, the displacement of existing play courts (which will be relocated to an open lawn area), and the addition of a small parking lot.

Maui Now is an open forum and we welcome any views. However, please apply your sense of aloha when posting comments - remarks that are unnecessarily offensive will be blocked.

By publishing a comment, you are acknowledging that you are personally responsible for its contents.

ttomni6

The article says that all the new construction and development means there will be a significant increase in enrollment.

OK – but where will all the teachers come from? Nobody wants to pay taxes. Nobody wants any benefits for public employees. The current taxes that a parent pays does not cover the education costs of their own children.

So let’s continue to build. The developers will make their money and go. When the development and construction is completed, you will have to pay more tax for education.

Then – there’s also the police and fire protection for these newly constructed areas. Don’t forget that your water and electric rates will have to go up to build out the infrastructure to supply the developments (and we know the water situation is already so dire that when our annual drought notifications are made, we may end up getting water rates doubled in some instances according to current items on the table).